part of his efforts resulted in a sequoia national are being established -- the sequoia national park being established in 1890. stewart was friends with john muir, was familiar with him. they were spotted with questions about the creation of the national park on the sea euros. uir replied back, saying he would stop by and say hi. we have all his papers and correspondence that highlight that an document that. it is important to preserve these and collect them and try to hold onto them as long as we can, because they are evidence of the stories we have heard in the past. or there is history we have heard rumors about and we want to verify whether it is true or not. we try to hold off on them as long as we can, not just old, dusty books in the corner. that book may hold a revelation to someone that may not know about it. >> we are outside of the three members -- three rivers museum in tulare county, california. it is just outside of sequoia national park. we spoke with a local office circular more about the history of this mountain range and the ancient peoples who called this area thei

this wasn't a small group here. 120 guests and staff stuck for a week at a lake resort in sequoia national park. about seven days. cruise how to plow 8 miles of deep snow and clear way 20 trees that had fallen across the road. they were able to get to them last night. the area will likely get several more feet of snow. 120 people stuck for a week. at least they had a big gathering. i'm sure after day three or four they wanted out. there are hotspots of rain over the santa cruz mountains spilling into the highway 101 corridor between morgan hill and san jose where the rain is and where the rain is not anywhere close to san francisco some light showers, san mateo county, alameda county, there will be some showers outside tonight but the heaviest rain happens to move through and we see scattered showers on saturday and sunday. speaking of big-time sierra snow, stephen allen sent me one of my favorite pictures of the year. right when carson pass opened last night early into this morning. he lives in saratoga and took this picture of himself next to the snow bank. 20-22 feet high. that is a lot of s

and we have hereby sequoia and kings canyon national parks, yosemite is not far away. it's only a couple of hours in the direction. >> are cities tour staff travel to visalia california to learn about its rich history. learn more about other stops on our tour at c-span.org/cities tour. you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. next on american history tv, a panel composed of two indian tribal chiefs, a historian, a curator, and an anthropologist in a discussion entitled, "pocahontas: cross-cultural ambassador." cohosted by american evolution and marking the 400th anniversary of key events in virginia. >> thank you, jamie, and thank you all for joining us today. pleasure to work with a steering committee for this symposium

and we have hereby sequoia and kings canyon national parks, yosemite is not far away. it's only a couple of hours in the direction. more about other stops in our tour at c-span.org/cities tour. watching american history tv. all weekend every weekend on c-span3. >> in 1793, president george washington selected william thornton's design for the u.s. capitol. gordon brown talks about his life and work including his english education, arrival in america, and his work as the city commissioner and director of the u.s. patent office. gordon brown is the author of incidental architect, william thornton and the cultural life of early washington, d.c. this event was part of a symposium hosted by the u.s. capitol historical society and the university of aberdeen in scotland. it is about 40 minutes. >> until this morning i knew him through his biography entitled incidental architect.

of paradise, california and accompanies an area from lake tahoe to yosemite valley and onto sequoia national park. last year, wildfires burned nearly 2 million acres in california. that is nearly eight times the average annual loss of 250,000 duringhat we experienced the last half of the 19th century. farther into back the pre-columbian period, scientists estimate wildfires detroit between 4.5 million -- destroyed between 4.5 million and 9 million acres per year. the camp fire burned millions of town ofiped out the paradise, claimed millions of lives. but in montana, that fire and killed 87owns people among the smaller and sparser population. what happens in the intervening time, the u.s. forest service was established and began removing excess timber before it and die,opy forests and we actively suppressed brush on burned lands and on brush lands. in the 1970's, congress imposed a series of environmental laws that objective federal land -- subjective federal land management too time-consuming and costly given -- costlymental prohibitive environmental regulations. nows the stored by fire has -- d

and we have hereby sequoia and kings canyon national parks, yosemite is not far away. it's only a couple of hours in the direction. it is a great place to be and a wonderful place to live. >> san joaquin valley, of course, is a breadbasket of the world, we like to say. tulare county is the second largest producer of agriculture. we have walnuts, pistachios, pecans. those are what we are going to first see as we leave town. then we start to get into the citrus area. we will have orange, lemons, limes. as we are driving along we are , starting to see some young crops here. we are walnuts, pistachios, growing throughout here. although it feels flat, we will go up a little bit and get into the citrus fruit. we are seeing some citrus. they citrus 12 months a year. we are the number one navel orange producer. many people are surprised at that. they think florida. but in fact -- the oranges are very strong here. the problem, this is the challenge, water is an issue. many people in the big cities don't want our water to be wasted by our farmers, as they say. there is a discuss

and we have hereby sequoia and kings canyon national parks, yosemite is not far away. it's only a couple of hours in the direction. >> are cities tour staff travel to visalia california to learn about its rich history. learn more about other stops on our tour at c-span.org/cities tour. you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. next on american history tv, a panel composed of two indian tribal chiefs, a historian, a curator, and an anthropologist in a discussion entitled, "pocahontas: cross-cultural ambassador." cohosted by american evolution and marking the 400th anniversary of key events in virginia. >> thank you, jamie, and thank you all for joining us today. pleasure to work with a steering committee for this theosium and coordinate wonderful program you are going to participate in this afternoon. it is exciting after all that planning and preparation to see andom full of people understand their continues to be a strong interest in the story of pocahontas. with all of you i'm looking to an afternoon where we can perhaps separate myth

we have shows all the time, and we have sequoia and kings canyon national park.emite is not far away. and of course if you want to go to the ocean, it is only a couple of hours either direction. make sure to tune in as we get booktv and american history tv as we travel to visalia, and to watch videos of visalia and all of the cities we have visited on the c-span cities tour, go to c-span.org /citiestour. calling to bj, who is from scotts valley, california on the democrats line. bgj, good morning. caller: good morning. i am calling because i think most people do not realize that three out of five firearm deaths in the united states are suicide. and also, most of the suicide in the united states are on the are white males in the middle and late years, and they tend to use guns. the national rifle association and the national sports association have partnered in an effort to reduce suicide rates from firearms. and firearms dealers in the united states who are members of the national shooting sports foundation as well as the club, are all gun receiving toolkits, wit

visalia has a strong connection with sequoia national park and the national parks service. role in getting sequoia designated as a national park in the first place. a local newspaper man started a campaign to get the park designated and to protect the giant sequoias from logging. i wanted to mention the palace hotel. this is the building that is catty corner to us. the second floor of that was a hotel always. the ground floor was always retail. i mentioned a little bit about the town's connection to the national park. 1915, a party came to the hotel and stayed there. the second floor hasn't been touched over 80 years. you can get the vibe of what it was like in 1915 before they left on a trek through the sierra and sequoia national park. the point of the journey was to emphasize how the national parks that already been designated were falling into disrepair because they were not under one umbrella to manage them. for a creationng of what would soon become the national parks service so all of these properties will be under one management directive. that is kind of a great his

national park service. had a bit of a role getting sequoia national park and designate and to protect these trees from logging. i wanted to mens the palace hotel. this is the building that is caddie corner to us over here. the second floor of that was always a hotel and the ground floor was always retail. i mentioned a little bit of visalia's historic connection to the national park. -- 15 the mountain meater matter party had a dinner. the second floor has not been touched in 80 years. you get the vibe of what it was in 1915 before they left for the track through the national park and the sierra. the point of the journey was to emphasize how the national parks that had already been designated were falling under disrepair because they weren't under one umbrella and matter was pushing for the creation of what would become the national park service so that all of these properties would be under one management directive and be preserved for the american people throughout time. so that's kind of a great historic building there and really solidified our connection to our national park neighbors. announcer: our citi

one of the largest american communities inside the national park here in sequoia national cup park. when it flooded, it did flood some of the areas, native american areas. they pulled some bedrock mortar up and had it on display here. edy -- inrtar is, in easy terms, they were able to take acorns and mashed their meal. there are lots of places in the park where you see evidence of this. there are pictographs there that are on some of the granite rocks. the college hospital rock because they assume that the native americans use that as a location for measures as you are walking along. it's not uncommon to find evidence of that in the mountains. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to buy celia o visalia, california. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. russell kirk was a leading conservative author born in 1918. his book, the conservative mind, was published in 1953. he wrote a column on education for national review and founded journals.vative senior fellow -- senior fellow john o'sullivan talk about russell kirk's influence and legacy i

roll inad a bit of a getting sequoia designated -- a in getting sequoia designated as a national park. a local newspaper man started the movement to protect the trees from logging. this building that is catty , ther to us to the left second floor was always a hotel on the ground floor was always retail. i mentioned a little bit about visalia's historic connection to the national park. , the vice president came to visalia. beenecond floor had not changed. the point of the journey was to emphasize how the national parks had been designated, were falling into disrepair because they were not under one umbrella. mather was pushing for the creation of what would become the national park service, all these properties under one , and thet directive preserved for the american people throughout time. that is a great historic building their, and really just solidified our connection to our national park neighbors. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to visalia, california to learn more about its rich history. learn more about by visiting -- learn more about visalia by visiting www.c-span.